"Wildly Popular"

Musicians

“Happy Ending gave us our first break, and we love playing there anytime. There’s always a challenge, and a challenge is always good.” Rick Moody, The Wingdale Community Singers

2018 Musical guests

AMANDA PALMER is a singer, songwriter, playwright, pianist, filmmaker, and blogger who simultaneously embraces and explodes traditional frameworks of music, theatre, and art. She first came to prominence as one half of the Boston-based punk cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls, earning global applause for their wide-ranging theatricality and inventive songcraft. Her solo career has proven equally brave and boundless, including such groundbreaking works as the fan-funded Theatre Is Evil, which made a top 10 debut on the SoundScan/Billboard 200 upon its 2012 release and remains the top-funded original music project on Kickstarter. In 2013 she presented “The Art of Asking” at the annual TED conference, which has since been viewed over 10 million times worldwide. The following year saw Palmer expand her philosophy into the New York Timesbest seller, The Art of Asking: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Let People Help. Since 2015, Palmer has used Patreon, a patronage subscription crowdfunding platform, to fund the creation of her art work while enabling her to collaborate with artists all over the world with over 11,000 patrons supporting her creations each month

2016 Musical guests

SUZANNE VEGA(bio and photos to come!)

2015 Musical guests

KYP MALONE is an artist living in New York. He plays in various musical projects including the bands Ice Balloons and TV on the Radio. He has ranked in the top ten of Peeple magazine’s “50 most beautiful people” for six years running, placing second in 2010 between someone unrecognizable due to having been dipped in florescent orange paint in first and the very idea of an objective hierarchy of beauty at third. He can’t look at bruised fruit without feeling a deep sense of dread. (photo by: Geneviève Jenkins)

TREVOR EXTERhas been a professional singer and cellist most of his life. He’s toured with a number of outfits, including De La Guarda and James McBride, as well as led his own projects. He frequently performs solo.

2014 Musical guests

LUCIUS, dubbed by Rolling Stone as “the best band you may not have heard yet,” are a five-piece indie-pop band from Brooklyn. The quintet pairs the synchronous and powerful vocals of Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, who also play synth and keyboards, with guitars and percussion from Dan Molad, Peter Lalish and Andrew Burri. Together, they make music that evokes classic girl-group pop and iconic rock ’n’ roll with a modern twist, that belongs solely to Lucius

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EMILY WELLS is a performer, producer, singer and composer known for her varied use of classical and modern instrumentation as well as her deft approach to live sampling at shows. Classically trained as a violinist, she also plays drums, guitars, keys, and beat machines . 2013 included the release of “Pillowfight”, her side project collaboration with Dan the Automator and Kid Koala, contributions to the motion picture soundtrack of Park Chan-Wook’s “Stoker.” and “Mama: Acoustic recordings” an acoustic reworking of her full length album “Mama”. Wells has been touring extensively in Europe and the United States and is now finishing her latest full length record due out in 2015.

Photo: Shervin Lainez

Between 9/03/2003 – 11/21/2012 the following musicians have played at The Happy Ending Music and Reading Series. I will add photos and bios for the rest, slowly, over the course of my entire life.